After a busy week of double headers, the Chaska Hawks boys tennis team ended its regular season with a 7-4 record. Due to some rescheduling for rain earlier in the season, the Hawks played five matches in a week, with two double headers.
“Having two matches a day is a challenge but once the guys get in a game day mindset, they enjoy being out here and working on their game,” said coach Zach Williams
During tennis matches, each school fields seven teams (four singles and three doubles). The winning team in each of those groups gets a point and the school with the most points wins.
On May 1, the Hawks beat Prior Lake 6-1.
In the first of two double headers on this perfect weather week, Chaska hosted a strong Bloomington Jefferson team. Jefferson had the upper hand in that match and won 6-1. Marcos Alonso (#2 singles) took the win for the Hawks in that match. Later that day Chaska traveled to Westonka and took on the White Hawks. The Hawks took that match 5-2.
The second double header of the week took place Thursday with an early match against Waconia and later match against Richfield. Chaska defeated their fellow purple and gold Carver County rivals (Waconia) 6-1.
Williams noted playing so many matches in a few days gives a chance for players to try new things.
“Since we’re into our season, the guys have a sense for their game and I do too. I’ll talk to them and ask if they want to change things up a bit. I may have a doubles player try a match as a single. We may switch up the doubles teams, too—it’s interchangeable. It gives us opportunities,” he said.
As an example, before the Waconia match, Landon Toltzman (normally on a doubles team) played singles for the first time this year and won his match.
The second match against Richfield also went the Hawks’ way 6-0 (Richfield fielded three singles teams instead of four).
“We played well today, guys looked good and are reading for our next few matches,” Williams said.
The Hawks finished their busy week with a 4-3 match win at New Prague on May 8 and dropped their final regular season match to Orono 0-7 on May 9 to end the regular season with a 7-4 record.
Now that the regular season has ended, the Hawks will receive their seeding for sectional quarter finals, which started on May 13.
